False alarm: Bones found near murder site of Briton Peter Falconio those of an animal

Bones recovered from an outback waterhole are of a large dog or sheep - and not missing British backpacker Peter Falconio, police said today.

Australian media sparked a frenzy with early reports that the bones found near a remote caravan park 50 miles north of the area where 28- year-old Mr Falconio disappeared in 2001 could be those of the British traveller.

But Northern Territory police confirmed today that the bones are of a large dog, a sheep or a calf.

Murder mystery: British backpacker Peter Falconio, 28, was murdered and his girlfriend Joanne Lees, was abducted by drug smuggler Bradley Murdoch. Mr Falconio's remains were never found

Killer: Bradley Murdoch was convicted of murdering Peter Falconio and assaulted Joanne Lees in the Australian Outback

'This matter has now been finalised,' said a police spokesman.

Although outback drifter Bradley Murdoch, 50, has been convicted of murdering Mr Falconio after tricking him and his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, to stop their campervan, the Briton's body has never been found.

Police have searched roads along which Murdoch might have travelled after the incident at a remote place called Barrow Creek, but nine years later Mr Falconio's body has still not been found.

There has been speculation that despite Murdoch's conviction Falconio was not killed that night.

The rumours have persisted because those who believe Murdoch is innocent of the crime say it would have been impossible for him to have hidden the body so well in the rock-hard desert in the dead of winter so deeply that it could not be found by police dogs.

His supporters have also pointed to a number of inconsistencies in Miss Lees' account of what happened that night.

She told police that after shooting Mr Falconio at the rear of their campervan their assailant dragged her into the front of his vehicle, from which she escaped by clambering over the front seats into the rear.

But the cabin area of Murdoch's van was sealed - there was no access from the front to the back.

She also said their attacker was travelling with a brown dog - whereas Murdoch's dog was a dalmation.

When news of the discovery of the bones near the Wycliff Well caravan park emerged, many who had followed the case said they could not be those of Falconio because if Murdoch had in fact driven off with the Englishman's body he would not have had time to travel to the waterhole.

Police said he had been captured on a CCTV camera in an Alice Springs petrol station shortly after midnight, making it impossible for him to have driven north from Barrow Creek to dump the body in the waterhole and then speed back to Alice Springs in time to be caught on the security camera.

The Wycliff Well bones is the third 'false alarm' relating to what were thought to be Peter Falconio's remains in recent years.

In the other cases, bones were recovered from waterholes - known as dams in Australia - but turned out to be those of animals.